Bona fide
by Chaed
Summary: As they walk away she holds his hand and looks up, hopeful. “Can you make the monsters go away?” Sherry, Wesker, various cameos.


**bona fide  
**in good faith

**By**: Chaed

**Rating**: T

**Disclaimer**: The only thing belonging to me is my imagination. I wouldn't trade with Capcom about that.

**A/N: **Sherry-centric. Mentions of Annette and William Birkin, Claire, Leon and Wesker.

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ab intra [from within]

"Everything's going to be alright, sweetie." It was meant to be reassuring, but it had been said too often already and lost its magic. "Remember I love you." She smiled nonetheless, looked into the haunted eyes of her mother and pretended to see happiness instead of despair. "I love you too, mom."

--

**multum in parvo [much in little]**

"Oh my god! It's so _beautiful_!" She regarded the little gold pendant and her own reflection in it. It was pretty and it was hers and the most important thing was that it was a present from her father. From that moment on it was her most precious treasure. It contained her daddy's love.

--

**ante bellum [before the war]**

Normally it was very quiet when she returned from school, but today was different. People were loud on the streets. They screamed and yelled and cried terrible things. She'd locked the door and tried calling her parents, but nobody would answer the phone. It made her horribly afraid. When the first violent assaults against door and windows started she went into the basement. It was her daddy's realm and although the many test tubes and strange equipment scared her, the people outside scared her more.

--

**in salvo [in safety]**

When the phone rang the tears started spilling across her face. With shaky hands she pressed the receiver to her ear.

"M…mom?"

"It's me, darling. Sherry, listen. What I'm going to tell you now is important, ok?" The voice on the other end of the line was quivering. Her mom was crying too.

She nodded. "Ok."

"You know where the police station is, right? It's just a few streets away from your school, remember we were there sometimes."

"Yeah… mom, I'm scared. There are people…"

"I know. I know, but you've got to pay attention now, Sherry. Are you listening to me?"

Another nod. Her mom couldn't see it from whereever she was so she added, "I'm listening."

"Go to the police station. I'm going to pick you up from there, ok?"

She hesitated. "Will daddy come too?"

But the line went dead.

--

**cave canem [beware of the dog]**

"Please don't hurt me! Please don't hurt me! I didn't do anything!" Her hands were raised in front of her face, shielding her head. She shut her eyes tightly, as if not being able to see was equal to not being able to be seen.

--

**cetera desunt [the rest are missing]**

The policeman led her into a room full of people. Some were hurt and the rest were in a panic, jumping to their feet as the officer opened the door to let her in. "We're all going to die in here!" exclaimed a woman. "Let us out!" demanded a bearded man. "Mom, I'm so scared!" cried a child. She wished her mother would be there too, so she could tell her the same.

--

**vade mecum [go with me]**

"Come here, sweetie…"

She shook her head, crawling deeper into the ventilation shaft. That's what the last person had said too, just before one of the skinned men had got her.

"It's not safe there," she reasoned.

"You'll be safe with me. I promise. At least come out of there for a minute, so I can give you my vest. You're freezing."

She shivered. The ponytail girl was right. "Ok," she said and started hoping again.

--

**ultra vires [beyond powers]**

"I don't know where my mom is."

"Do you know where she works?"

A heavy desperation settled in her chest. "I've never been there…"

"We'll find her. Everything's going to be alright, believe me," Claire said, but the magic of those words was long since lost.

--

**cor aut mors [heart or death]**

The last time she'd seen her daddy had been when he'd given her the pendant and she clutched on to it for dear life. "I didn't do anything!" she cried and tears streamed down her cheeks. But the big monster wasn't listening as it grabbed her arm cruelly, janking the gold pendant with her daddy's love out of her hands. "Help me, help me, help me…" Nobody ever heard her and the monster towered above her, like the boogeyman that had escaped from under her bed.

--

**bona fide [in good faith]**

Her mother was buried under the heavy piece of cement and in her delirium she was talking about love and family, but what really caught Sherry's attention was the blood that continuously flew from her open mouth. So she brushed her mother's hair out of her face and kissed her forehead and whispered, "I love you, mom…don't worry, it'll be ok."

--

**lapsus linguae [slip of the tongue]**

Nothing was ok. Sherry grasped Claire's hand tightly and asked, "Are you angry?" There was a trace of confusion on the older girl's face. "Why should I be angry?" Sherry shrugged and felt for the empty place on her chest the pendant usually fell on. "I dunno. I'm angry."

--

**de mortius aut bene aut nihil [about the dead either well or nothing]**

"Your parents loved you."

She crossed her arms at the statement. "My parents are dead."

Leon sighed and turned away. Better leave it to Claire.

--

**pro bono [for the good]**

Claire and Leon who had both assured her that everything would be alright were gone. They had left because there were more important things that demanded their attention and because she was slowing them down. At first she was scared, then sad, then furious. In the end she pushed it into the deepest part of her mind. It was a way of accepting, of coping

--

**damnatio memoriae [damnation of memory]**

The men in the suits ignored her just like she ignored them. At the beginning they had been polite, now they acted as if she wasn't there. It brought back tears and memories of her parents, who still waited to pick her up at the Raccoon Police Department in the middle of a city that didn't exist anymore.

--

**ab hinc [from here on]**

When he came she was cautious at first. They knew eachother. He was a friend of the family Sherry had left behind in the town that was now ash. He greeted her warmly and held out a gloved hand for her to take. The sunglasses had never intimidated her and now was no exception.

--

**memento vivere [a reminder of life]**

"They didn't survive, did they?" she blurted out as they drove in the car. His eyes were on the road, but she could see something gold sparkling in them from where she sat in the passenger's side.

He let silence sink in, then said it in the nicest way possible. "They didn't."

"And what now?"

"Life goes on."

--

**rara avis [rare bird]**

When he took off his shades for the first time she didn't flinch. They weren't scary. Just different. Everything was different. "It's ok," she told him and felt like a grown up by saying it. The slit pupils moved, fixing on her. "I'm glad." They both were.

--

**nec spe nec metu [without hope, without fear]**

As they walked away from the debris that was once Raccoon City, her life and home, she took his hand and looked up into golden orbs. "Can you make the monsters go away?"

He smiled, giving her a light squeeze. "No, I can't." And the truth, however horrible it was, felt comforting and reassuring, more so than any lie ever could. "But I'll try. Everything will be alright, some time."

And although she didn't quite believe him, some of the magic returned.


End file.
